Nevada Senator Harry Reid said he would vote to legalise same-sex marriages.

The Senate Majority Leader told reporters he met with on Thursday in Washington, DC that he would vote in favor of the controversial issue because it's a view that 'will carry the future.'

Reid's comments, which signaled a change in his views after once voting to ban the measure in Nevada, comes on the heels of President Barack Obama's historic announcement this week that he supports gay marriage.

Opinion: Nevada Senator Harry Reid told reporters that he would vote in favor of same-sex marriages because it's a view that 'will carry the future' (file photo)

The lawmaker said during the meeting that his personal beliefs are that marriage should be between a man and a woman, the Las Vegas Review-Journal report.

But family members convinced him that society should accept equality in marriage for gay couples.

Reid, however, supported the Nevada constitutional amendment to outlaw such unions and voted for a federal law that said marriage was between a man and a woman.

Stance: Reid's remarks come on the heels of President Barack Obama, who told Robin Roberts (left) of ABC News interview that he supports gay marriages

Obama
had long been suspected of holding this view, but was thought to be
afraid to make it public because of the political backlash.

The
revelation came the same week voters in the key battleground state of
North Carolina approved a strict new ban on same-sex marriage. The
measure, which prohibits any civil or domestic benefits for gay couples,
passed by a landslide with 61 per cent of the vote.

'At a certain point I’ve just
concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and
affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married,' the
president said.

Obama
claims the change is a personal one only, and that he he still believes
the issue of gay marriage should be left up to the states.

Historic: This has been a controversial week on the issue as North Carolina voters cast ballots saying marriage should be between a man and a woman

Currently, six states allow gay couples to wed and 30 states have constitutional amendments explicitly banning it.

Obama had been under intense pressure
to clarify his view toward gay marriage after Vice President Joe Biden
publicly supported it on Sunday.

Mr Biden said: 'I am absolutely comfortable with the
fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual – men
and women marrying – are entitled to the same exact rights, all the
civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don’t see
much of a distinction beyond that,' Biden said on Meet the Press.

Obama seems to be making an
election-year political gamble by directly challenging Mitt Romney, his
Republican opponent in November.

Romney has said he does not support people from the same gender marrying each other.